Legion Of Steel
by Jed Rhodes
Summary: The Doctor takes Jack home for a visit, only to find something is not right on Boeshane... Travels of a Time Lord, 1.6.
1. Alleyway Trouble

**Eilidh Brown was created by Simon Barnes.**

--

Daniel Kattrell walked down the alley, happy as Larry.

He had just asked Cathy Denver to marry him – and she had made his night by saying yes. They were getting married in less than three weeks. His mother had pressed his best tuxedo ready for it, and his father was already talking about venues. Oh - but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that she and he were in love, and would have a long, happy life together...

Clang.

He spun on his heel. The alley was dark and shadowy, but he couldn't see any clear figures.

"Who's there?" he asked. He was always rather jittery, he thought to himself. He calmed down and turned to go on. A tramp or a stray, he told himself confidently.

And fell to the ground unconscious as the stun laser hit him.

"Take the specimen to base," one of the two tall figures said. "Our legions must grow."

"No," Jack said in disbelief.

"Yep," the Doctor smiled. "Believe it or not, it's the truth."

They were both staring at the scanner screen, Jack with an expression of happiness, the Doctor an expression of quiet triumph. Jack was wearing his usual long RAF coat and the Doctor was wearing his blue suit, with a dark red shirt and matching tie.

"Mornin," came a voice from one of the other doors - Eilidh Brown walked into the room, in her dressing gown, yawning slightly. "Where are we this time? Planet Zog? The home world of some nasty evil alien monster? The restaurant at the end of the universe?"

"Boeshane peninsula!" the Doctor said, happily. "A lovely little place on a colony world. Absolutely marvellous - and the home of one Mr Captain Jack Harkness!!"

Eilidh looked from the Doctor's smiling face to Jacks' ecstatic one, trying to decider if they were joking - Jack wasn't even looking at her, he was staring at the screen.

"Home," he said. "My home..."

"I thought I'd show you a bit of its future," the Doctor continued. "This is the fifty second century - I don't know if much has changed since your time but..."

"It doesn't matter," Jack said, smiling. "As long as it's my home, I'm happy to see it."

"Then let's go out for a wander!" the Doctor said, grabbing his coat. Before he could say anything else, Jack was out of the door.

"You took us to his home?" Eilidh asked.

"Yes," the Doctor said. "After all he's done for us, I figured he deserved a break - and this should be nice for him, he's been through a lot since he was last here."

"Will they all be like him?" she queried, tentatively.

"He's a product of his time - so yes, they'll be a little like him, yes."

The Doctor smiled at her, and flicked a couple of switches on the console.

"Great," Eilidh said through a fake smile. "Planet of the flirty pound shop Tom Cruises."

She wandered off to find some clothes, and the Doctor was laughing.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"That's good that - never thought of that," he laughed. "Jack - the pound shop Tom Cruise..."

"Excuse me?" Jack grinned in mock outrage. At some point he'd come back in, and was staring at the two of them with a fake frown and a grin on his face. "He's the pound shop guy, thank you!"

After a while, they'd left the TARDIS. They walked down a relatively crowded high street - or at least, what Eilidh thought was a high street. It was all made from some sort of sandstone, and everyone was wearing the full Tatooine.

"It's not how I remember it," Jack said.

"Well, it's been a while," the Doctor replied, "doubtless things will have changed. For a start, the Earth Security forces dealt with - well, they dealt with your problem - a while back, and assigned a permanent garrison here..."

As he spoke, three men in white space-armour walked by, carrying exotic laser guns. They nodded at the time travellers in greeting.

"They look like Stormtroopers," Eilidh pointed out.

"Everything in the future is inspired by pop-culture," Jack replied. "You'd be surprised how many Starships look like something out of Blakes Seven."

"Or Babylon five," the Doctor added. "All the designs are inspired by old stuff."

"That's a bit silly," Eilidh commented.

"Not really," the Doctor countered. "Think of your time - how many things are inspired by Knights, and how many TV shows by ancient history? Think about Troy!"

"Yeah, that's fiction," Eilidh said. "This is reality - and they really look like Stormtroopers."

"Clone Troopers in Mark Two armour, actually," Jack replied instantly. The other two looked at him, and he blushed slightly.

"You watched a lot of Star Wars while you were on Earth didn't you?" the Doctor asked.

"Well, yeah..." Jack said, "plus I did really, really well on Battlefront Two..."  
Eilidh laughed.

"You are such a bloke!" she laughed. "I mean, video games?"

"Hey, I'll have you know I was really good at Battlefront - I beat Owen nine times out of ten at Conquest, and I've never lost a capture the flag..."

The Doctor sighed, and wandered off slightly, leaving them to their arguments over Star Wars. He wandered down a side alley, and looked around.

Clang.

He spun on his heel, and looked around. There was nobody there. He took out his sonic screwdriver, and held it up, as if to ward off any hostiles.

Doesn't kill, doesn't wound, doesn't maim. His own words ran though his head. Here he was, holding the super technological equivalent of a lock pick up as if it were a weapon.

Clang, again. He held the sonic up higher.

"Who's there?" he called. Nobody answered. "Who's there?!" he yelled.

A tall, dark figure stepped out, and walked towards him...

--


	2. Torchwood X

II

The figure stepped into the light, and held up it's hand in a sign of peace.

"I'm Agent Duchesne of the Boeshane defence service," he said. "I'm investigating a series of disappearances."

"Good for you," the Doctor said slowly, fearing that he may have yet again become a suspect in some local crime - a habit he thought he'd long since quit.

"Well, I was hoping you might be able to help me," Duchesne continued.

"Sorry, I don't know anything," the Doctor said. "Me and my mates only just got here ourselves."

"Ah yes," Duchesne smiled. "With that lovely little blue box of yours."

"Who are you?!" the Doctor snarled, holding his Sonic Screwdriver up again.

"Oh don't pretend that's anything other than a lock pick, Doctor!" Duchesne laughed. "And don't be so paranoid - I'm on your side. We need your help."

"Who the hell's we?" the Doctor asked. Duchesne smiled at him, sinisterly.

"We call ourselves... Torchwood X."

--

Jack smiled as they walked down the street. Eilidh was even beginning to enjoy herself. The Doctor had - presumably - wandered off to explore, and neither of them were that fussed. He was bound to show up in a minute.

At that point, of course, something weird just had to happen, and it did. A woman ran across the street as they wandered, screaming blue murder. She was youngish, about twenty five, with blonde hair, and she was wearing a clinical dressing gown. She ran straight into Jack with a 'whumph'.

"Help me!" she yelled. "They're after me! HELP ME!!"

"Whoa there," Jack said soothingly, turning on the charm. "Calm down ma'am. I'm Jack Harkness, this is Eilidh Brown - just tell us what the problem is."

As he spoke, two men in white coats marched across to him, and looked at the woman. She cowered away from them. One of them addressed Jack.

"She is ill," he said, his tone blank. "She needs healing - we will take care of her."

"I don't think she particularly wants to go with you," Eilidh pointed out.

The man looked at her, and Eilidh shuddered slightly at the blankness of his eyes.

"Humans often do not wish what is best for them to occur," he said, "but it usually must or they will not survive. So it is with the woman."

"Keep them away from me!!" the woman yelled.

"You heard her, back off!" Jack said.

The man said nothing, but cocked his head as if listening - his fellow did the same. The next moment, they both walked off.

"Who are they?" Eilidh asked, but the woman had fainted dead away.

"Well, that was weird," Jack said. "I wonder who they were..."

"The Doctor will be able to figure it out, when he comes back," Eilidh said.

"Yeah," Jack agreed, picking the woman up and carrying her off.

"Where are you going?" Eilidh asked.

"She needs help, and I'm going to get her it," Jack replied. "Follow me."

--

The Doctor had said nothing since Duchesne's revelation. He had followed meekly, saying nothing. He had walked into the complex, bearing the dual logo's of Torchwood (the old Victorian version from Torchwood House, he noted, rather than the one from Jack's Torchwood) and the Boeshane security service. And when they got to the office of the head of this place, he still said nothing.

"So, then, Doctor," the woman said, smiling at him and standing up. "It's a real pleasure to finally get to meet you."

She held her hand out, but he ignored it. Smiling this off, she sat down again.

"So," she said. "I'm Laura Carson, head of the Boeshane Security Service, and of Torchwood X."

"Why X?" the Doctor asked.

"Ah, he speaks!" she smiled. "The X represents the mathematical fact that we don't know how many branches Torchwood has nowadays - for all we know, we could be the only one, or there could be five thousand, or five million."

"I hope not," he said. "Then I'd have a hell of a job bringing them all down."

Carson raised an eyebrow.

"Let me make one thing quite clear," the Doctor continued. "I do not like Torchwood. In fact, if there was one thing I would do, if I had the power, it would be to erase Torchwood the idea from history. But I can't, can I? So I have to deal with you, and your blinkered vision of just about everything."

"That's a little unfair Doctor," Carson said. "You've never seen my Torchwood."

The Doctor glared at her.

"You're Torchwood," he said. "I don't need to have seen you. Now what - do - you - want?"

Carson had stopped smiling a while ago, and now she put on a business-like manner.

"Several people have been disappearing," she explained. "We don't know where, we don't know why. There's no connection between any of them. Not one. It's baffling."

"And you want me to help?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes," Carson answered, simply. "You are an expert in every science known to man - and a few that aren't."

The Doctor stared at her for a few moments, then walked right out of the door.

"Er... Doctor?" Carson called after him.

"Where's your labs?!" he yelled back at her from halfway down the corridor. "We've got a mystery to solve, c'mon! Allonsy!"

Duchesne looked at Carson in bemusement. She just smiled.

"That is the Doctor," she said.

--

Jack looked at the woman lying on the bed.

"It's not right that they got away," he said to Eilidh, who was standing at his side. "It's not right at all."

"No," Eilidh agreed - she might not fully trust or like Jack, but his morals were sound. "But we can't do anything. Those coppers - whoever they were..."

"Boeshane Law Enforcement," Jack replied instantly.

"They'll find the blokes, and sort them out," she finished. "C'mon, let's go find the Doctor."

They walked out. A few moments after they had, two men walked into the hospital room, and stood over the woman's bed. She woke up and looked at them, before recognising who they were.

"No... no!" she yelled. They leaned over her and reached out to grab her - she screamed...

--

Jack and Eilidh ran back into the hospital room, together with a couple of staff, and looked in horror at what they saw. The woman was gone, her bed overturned. There was no sign of anyone in here now.

"How could they have just vanished?" one of the hospital orderlies asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Jack replied. He sniffed the air. "Transmat."

"Someone transmatted her out of here?" the orderly replied, shell shocked. "That's... that's..."

"Impossible?" Eilidh suggested.

"Clearly not," Jack snarled, running out of the room. Eilidh ran after him, leaving a shocked and disoriented orderly behind. He ran into the street, and looked around.

"What are you doing?" Eilidh asked, not getting what the mad yank was on about.

"Scanning," Jack replied, holding his wrist up. His Vortex Manipulator was beeping. "If I can get a fix on where those transmatting blinkers took her, I can go there, and kick their rear ends into the nearest black hole!"

"Blinkers?" Eilidh commented.

"TARDIS swear filter," Jack replied. "It sometimes really gets on my nerves, but it's the least of my worries right about now."

The Vortex Manipulator beeped, and Jack ran off down a small back alley. Eilidh followed, hoping the Captain knew what the hell he was doing...

--


	3. Cybermen

III

The Doctor scanned the area three times using Torchwood's resident machinery. It was primitive by the TARDIS's standards, but it served.

"Nothing extraterrestrial on here," he said. "Although there is some sort of interference."

"Can you get rid of it?" Carson asked.

"Probably," the Doctor replied, running his sonic screwdriver over it. "It should be clearer now," he said after a moment. "And - helloooo, what's that?"

A little red light was beeping on and off, repeatedly, in a small section of town. The Doctor pressed a button and the screen refocused to get straight in there.

"It looks like an alien signature!" Duchesne pointed out.

"It is!" the Doctor said, grinning slightly. "Can't identify what kind, but then, you guys wanted a look anyway, right?"

He turned to the Torchwood people. Duchesne looked at Carson, who looked at the Doctor.

"Go there?" she asked.

"Well, yeah!" the Doctor said. "I mean, you're Torchwood! You hunt down alien life forms for a living, and slaughter them if you feel like it!"

"This isn't the same kind of Torchwood, Doctor!" Duchesne said angrily.

"I'll believe that when I see it," the Doctor replied. "Now - let's go, shall we? Avante!"

He ran off, already slinging on his previously discarded coat. Carson followed him, gesturing to Duchesne while she went.

"This is Duchesne to squad five," the Torchwood man said. "Meet me and Commander Carson at main entrance. Over."

--

Jack ran down another alleyway, following the beeping from his Vortex Manipulator.

"How long are we going to keep this up?" Eilidh asked.

"You can go back, if you want," Jack replied.

"Like hell," she said. "But damn it all Jack, we should at least find the Doctor first..."

"He sorts out alien problems," Jack said. "Problems with invasions. I sort out the human stuff. This is my turf."

Eilidh sighed, and continued following him as he ran down another street. Eventually, he came to a little door, made of wood, which he promptly kicked down. The room beyond was empty, except for a small trapdoor.

"Well, as the Doctor would say," Jack said, crossing to it in an instant, "Allonsy!"

He jumped feet first down into the trapdoor, and Eilidh rolled her eyes at his impulsiveness.

'Mind you,' she thought, 'I suppose you're allowed to be impulsive when you can't die.'

She stepped down, and let herself fall into the trapdoor, a mite more cautiously than he had. After a moment, she landed - she judged the drop at having been about three or four feet.

"Jack?" she hissed. "Jack, where are you?"

There was no answer.

"JACK!" she yelled, and she felt a hand clamp over her mouth. Harking back to her rape defence  
classes, she kicked the attacker firmly where the balls of a human being would be, and was not entirely surprised at the somewhat familiar groan of pain.

"God, Eilidh, did you have to do that?" Captain Jack Harkness said.

"Well, no, but it was funny," she replied, smiling. It was, however, so dark that she could barely see him, so he probably couldn't see her smile.

"Yeah, well... let's go," Jack replied, heading down a corridor. Eilidh followed, still smiling.

--

The Doctor, together with Carson, Duchesne and half a dozen troopers in the same white space armour that the men earlier had been wearing, opened the door carefully.

"Well, that was a bit of an anticlimax," he said. The room was empty, apart from a bookcase. The Torchwood people walked in, and looked around, while the Doctor scanned the area. After a while, he gave up, and leaned on the bookcase.

"As far as I can tell," he began, "there's nothing in here - whoaaaaaaaa!"

The Bookcase fell in, and he tipped down a hole, falling down a dark tunnel. After a moment, he hit some rather solid ground.

"Well!" he yelled, not particularly caring who heard him, "That was kinda... interesting..."

The room he found himself in was dark, but he could still see. Metal tunnels. Pipes in the walls, leading to what - he assumed - would be the HQ of the big bad...

--

Jack noticed the piping quite a way down the tunnel. Eilidh had actually noticed it earlier, but had decide that this was Jack's being-a-stupid-plonk mission, not hers, so he could work it out. In retrospect, she would think later, this was a bad move.

"Well, what could they meant?" she asked, putting her best nice-idiotic-girl-from-sixties-sci-fi voice on, just for the occasion.

"That we're getting closer to the source maybe - who knows?" Jack replied, whispering harshly. Eilidh said nothing, but rolled her eyes again at his impulsiveness. She dearly wished to remind him that she could be killed by whatever was down here, but he probably wouldn't have cared.

"The important thing is, this is where the transmat beam came to," Jack continued.

"Are you sure?" Eilidh asked.

"The Doctor may have broken my Vortex Manipulator," Jack explained, still whispering, "but he didn't break any of it's other functions. It still works brilliantly as a scanner."

"And what's it scanning for, at the mo?" she asked.

"Any life forms," Jack said, looking at it again, but as he did so he stopped. "Now, that's scary," he added.

"What is?" Eilidh asked, looking at the incomprehensible mess on the screen.

"These are life form recordings," Jack clarified. "But they aren't human. In fact, I'd almost say they look like - but they can't be..."

"What?" Eilidh insisted.

"C'mon," Jack said, his voice rising slightly. "Let's go."

He ran further down the corridor, leaving Eilidh to follow him, now somewhat worried about what kind of aliens they were up against...

--

The Doctor waited for the Torchwood people to follow him down. Typically, Duchesne and the troopers did military rolls as soon as they landed, and aimed their guns in every direction. Carson simply slid down, and landed on her feet like a cat.

"We all here?" she queried.

"I think so, ma'am," Duchesne said, "Well Doctor? Where are we?"

"Well how would I know?" the Doctor replied, sarcastically. "I'm not the alien hunter, I'm the alien-who-happens-to-save-worlds-in-his-spare-time!"

"You're also our resident expert," Carson pointed out. "Do you recognise any of the technology?"

"Nope," the Doctor said. "I don't recognise a blessed thing. Annoying really."

He took off down the nearest corridor, and the Torchwood people followed.

--

**"They are getting closer."**

"Let them, they can do no harm even if they do find us."

"They call the younger male 'Doctor'. Could it be him?"

"Even if it is, he cannot stop us - we have everything set up so that failure is almost impossible."

"There is always a possibility, Leader."

"Always, but we have taken every precaution - now we must make sure the Doctor cannot stop us."

"How, Leader?"

"We must ask the Controller - his brain has five billion separate tactical programs in place."

"It is unwise to risk reactivation - the shock could scramble his nervous system."

"Nonetheless, we require a superior intellect. Activate him. And in the meantime, send a squad to deal with the intruders."

"Where shall they intercept, Leader?"

"Sector B-Seven, where both parties shall meet. Dispatch the units."

"Yes Leader."

"And note - all hostile units are to be taken alive - we require more units if the final assault is to succeed."

"Yes Leader."

--

The Doctor was doing what came naturally to the Doctor - that is, wondering about aimlessly. He was following the pipes, but wasn't entirely sure that they led where he had said - namely, the main base of the big bad. In truth, he suspected this might be the way to the refuse station...

And he ran right into another figure walking up to him. Almost instantly, he threw his opponent over into a wall - his old Venusian Aikido training coming back to him. He heard a familiar sigh, a familiar groan, and he immediately cut the fighting pose.

"Everybody wants to have a go..." Jack groaned. Two Torchwood men immediately covered him.

"Who're you friends, Doctor?" Eilidh asked.

"Torchwood X," Duchesne said., Jack stood up and faced Duchesne, a frown on his face.

"Captain Jack Harkness," he introduced himself. "Torchwood - Three."

Carson widened her eyes considerably, the troopers saluted, and Duchesne grabbed Jacks hand and shook it vigorously.

"You can't be..." Carson said. "Jack Harkness disappeared centuries ago..."

The Doctor grinned quietly.

"Well," Jack said. "I guess I didn't disappear quite as well as you thought."

"You're a legend in Torchwood, sir," Duchesne said. "An absolute legend. I mean, the way you handled..."

"I'd shut up if I were you," Carson said. "This must be a Jack from when he travelled with the Doctor a second time."

"Yeah, he travels with us," Eilidh replied. "And just who the hell are you?"

"We might ask you the same question," Carson countered.

"I'm Eilidh Brown," she said. Duchesne blanched slightly - barely noticeable in the light, but Carson did nothing. Eilidh ignored Duchesne - he probably didn't like her because it was recorded somewhere that she didn't like Jack.

"So, now we're all here," the Doctor said, holding a hand up, "let's see if you've found anything out, Jack...?"

Jack looked at his Vortex Manipulator again, then showed the Doctor, who studied it intently for a moment. Eilidh sighed, and wandered a bit down a corridor. After a moment, she noticed a few figures advancing - tall, black-clothed figures, about seven feet tall - though that might have been her imagination.

"What the hell?" she muttered. One of the grunts saw them too, and motioned to Duchesne, who in turn motioned to Carson.

"Doctor," Carson called, "there's something there."

The Doctor walked away from Jack, looking rather troubled.

"I think I know what we're up against," he said. The figures came into a shaft of light from a tunnel, and for the first time, they could be seen properly. Dead circles for eyes, with little tear drops underneath. Black Jumpsuits lined with coiled piping. Rectangular Chest units with blinking lights. Handle structures leading from where the ear would be to where the top of the head was, converging on a little hole with a red light blinking. Square mouths.

"What are they?" Duchesne asked.

"They can't be..." Eilidh added, looking at them in horror. "That was so long ago..."

"I knew it," Jack said grimly.

The Doctor said only one word, but that word terrified all of the humans present.

"Cybermen."

Then the Cybermens head-guns blared, and they all knew no more.

--


	4. We Must Survive

It had been years ago. 2007. Her parents had been alive then.

Ghosts they had called them. She had always been sceptical, but she had never imagined once what they might truly be.

Then the metal men burst through the living room door, and smashed the furniture. She could still hear the gunfire some nights from outside - shooting from men who were no match for the steel giants they faced.

And then they had flown away - and no one had understood - a miracle some called it. She had never thought that. Never.

--

He remembered the training videos. They always told you about the Daleks, even though they were gone. They always told you about the Cybermen, even though they were all but gone.

These things - monsters. They wanted to help, but they destroyed instead. They had ripped Ianto's life apart. He wouldn't let it happen here. If he had to die a thousand deaths, he would not let it happen here.

--

They were some of his most evil foes. The worst thing was, they didn't think they were evil. They thought they were helping the people they killed.

Well what else could you call getting your brain cut out of it's true body and placed in a metal shell, all the emotion removed, turning you into nothing but an automaton. That's what the Cybermen did.

They thought it was a gift - removing the 'weakness' of the flesh, and replacing it. No. It wasn't a gift. They wouldn't destroy this world, not here, not now.

Because he was here - and he wouldn't let them. There was no higher authority - it stopped with him.

--

When Captain Jack Harkness awoke, he was in a small metal chamber - lying on the floor, not even manacled. The Doctor was sitting, brooding, in a corner, and Eilidh was out like a light. Carson was checking the locks on the door, and there was no sign of Duchesne or the Torchwood troopers.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Stun setting," the Doctor replied solemnly. "They didn't want to damage us."

"They really are... Cybermen, then?" Jack asked. The Doctor said nothing, but nodded his head once, slowly, sadly. "Cybermen, here," Jack continued, "on my homeworld. We've got to stop them!"

"Obviously," the Doctor commented. "Because if they get a foothold in this part of the galaxy..."

"It's not strategic value that worries me, Doctor," Jack snapped, "it's the fact that this is my home, and it's about to be attacked by the most dangerous creatures in the universe!"

"Second most dangerous," Carson put in from the door - she'd given up trying to force it. "The Daleks are more destructive..."

"The Daleks kill you," the Doctor said. "The Cybermen don't want to kill you - they want to help you. They think humanity's mad as cheddar - and they think they have the cure."

"They call turning us into Cybermen a cure?" Carson replied, appalled. "They're mad, if they believe that!"

Eilidh woke up at all the noise, and stirred slowly.

"Doctor," she said, "I had the weirdest dream..."

She stopped dead as she saw her surroundings.

"Oh God, it wasn't a dream," she whispered. "Stinking Cybermen - that's impossible, though!" she yelled suddenly. "They all disappeared, years ago!"

"Of course," the Doctor said. "That particular bunch were soaked to the brim in void stuff - never stood a chance. I was there, I remember. But this lot aren't from a parallel universe - they're the home grown variety. Our universes version."

"Where do they come from?" Eilidh asked.

"The planet Mondas," the Doctor told her. "The Earths twin world. The people were dying, so they came up with ways of restoring themselves to full health - involving technology, machinery. They turned themselves into nigh on immortal beings, adapting to every problem that they were faced with. Radiation? Lead shielding in all vital sections. Solvents? All vital systems are made of durasteel - incredibly light, but as tough as iron."

"Gold?" Carson suggested. "They were always vulnerable to it."

"Yes, you'll find that in several varieties," the Doctor agreed, "but they've picked their invasion point quite well, here. This planet has very, very minimal supplies of gold. Have you got any?"

"Nope," Jack said instantly.

"None," Eilidh reported sadly, after checking.

"None on Boeshane," Carson said sadly. "But..."

"We're going to have to keep our wits about us," the Doctor said. "Any minute now, they'll be coming for us..."

"Doctor," Jack said, "there were these two guys in white coats - they transmatted a woman down here. Who d'you think they were?"

The Doctor thought about that for a moment, then shrugged.

"Chances are, they were just a couple of people halfway converted into Cybermen, and sent out to gather people without arousing suspicion," he theorised. "They'll probably be undergoing the full thing as we speak..."

Jack slumped against the wall, looking dejected. He had failed. Eilidh felt sorry for him, but there was no time for sympathetic words, as the door suddenly slid open - and a Cyberman appeared in the doorway. It was silver in colour, but apart from that, it was identical to the ones that had captured them.

**"The Doctor will accompany me,"** it stated, brooking no argument even though it's tone was neutral.

The Doctor stood up, then marched out with it. The door slid shut again.

"Now it's up to him," Jack said. "If he can't find a way to free us, we're doomed."

--

He walked into the control room behind the guard - another was behind him, so he couldn't escape.

There were two Cybermen at the controls - one was a Cyberleader with black handlebars, and the other - while unmarked - was obviously its Lieutenant.

"Hello!" the Doctor yelled into the otherwise silent room. It wasn't much of a control room - a couple of panels set into metal walls, and a few chambers where - to the Doctor's dismay but hardly surprise - there were a few people, halfway through the process of being converted into Cybermen. A young blonde woman, her arms already replaced. A man in a suit, with an engagement ring on his finger.

Two men in white coats. Duchesne and his men.

"Well," the Doctor continued, his voice going a couple of degrees colder. "I guess you'd call this reunion of the century – although hardly a happy one."

**"Silence,"** the Cyberleader said**. "You will answer our questions, or be eradicated."  
**  
"Oh will I?" the Doctor laughed. "You lot seem to forget you you're talking to – I'm the Doctor! Time Lord! Expert at fighting insane alien races – and let me tell you…" he leaned forward as if to whisper confidentially, then bellowed "I am not in the mood for Cybermen!"

The Cybermen stood, impassive, while he raged.

"You're going to self destruct all of this," the Doctor went on, his voice rising in volume, "then you're going to go back where you came from, and never bother humanity again, because I am through trying to reason with you!"

**"You are proving our purpose with every word, Doctor,"** the Cyberleader countered. **"You are irrational, anger clouds your judgement. We can set you free."  
**  
"Oh shut up with your rhetoric!" the Doctor yelled, smashing his fist down on the computer console. "A thousand times Cyberleaders have tried to tell me that they're right, and I am wrong, and that Cybermen are superior – and you know what? EVERY TIME I'VE BEATEN THEM!!"

A Cyberman stepped up behind him and grabbed his shoulder, pulling him away from the console.

**"Your emotions have blinded you to logic, Doctor," **the Cyberleader argued, dispassionately.** "We are the superior form of human life. We offer a chance for humanity to become strong – to cast aside the weakness of the flesh. We continue with these courses of action because there are no others – we are correct, you are not."  
**  
"Prove it," the Doctor snarled.

**"You have only to observe your own position,"** the Cyberleader said. **"You are held prisoner by one of our units – and it is stronger than you. We are superior."  
**  
The Doctor stared at his blank metal eyes, and taking his silence as a cue to continue, the Cyberleader went on: "I do not understand why humanity and others continue to resist the Cybermen. We only wish to improve you – to free you from the hatred and despair that rules your lives."

The Doctor still said nothing, but there was a strange light in his eyes – the Cybermen didn't notice however, since they were all logic. The Cyberleader went on.

**"While that may mean that the so called 'positive emotions' are removed as well, it is good that this is so – they cloud the judgement as much as any other emotions, and can lead to complacency – and in this universe of war, that cannot be tolerated… wait…"**

The Doctor was sniggering. No more than that – he was laughing.

**"What is the source of your amusement?"** the Cyberleader asked.

"Oh – nothing much," the Doctor said. "Only you were so busy watching me get angry, you didn't pay attention to which buttons I pressed."

The Cyberleader looked at his console, and looked back to the Doctor.

**"What have you -?"**

At that moment, all the pods that housed the Cyber conversion victims opened, and they slowly began awakening. The first to awaken was Duchesne, his body covered in Cybertech. He opened his eyes blearily, then fixed his sight on the Cyberleader, then his own hands.

**"N… n… NOOOOO!!"** he screamed, throwing himself at the Cyberleader with a vengeance. Other victims did the same to the other Cybermen, and soon a brawl had began. The Doctor ran for the door, and turned back briefly to look at the fight. Most of the victims, being only half Cybernised, had been quickly killed, but Duchesne and the Blonde woman had fought like mad, and killed several Cybermen.

"I'm so sorry," he muttered to the victims of the Cybermen. "I am so very sorry."

He ran out of the door.

--

When the door opened again, Captain Jack Harkness leaped at the figure beyond it, to try and buy time for Eilidh and Carson to escape. However, instead of the solid metal figure he had been expecting, there was just a thin man in a blue suit that fell back under the onslaught.

"Doctor!" he exclaimed. "You're alive!"

"Of course I am!" the Doctor said, mildly chastising his companion. "Do you think some Cybermen could kill me? Now quick, let's go, we've gotta warn the authorities that there are Cybermen here…"

He ran down the corridor, and Jack followed him. Eilidh and Carson came up behind them, Eilidh muttering something under her breath that sounded a lot like "typical – doesn't even ask whether I'm ok…"

--

The Cyberleader lifted the last surviving failed conversion of the ground by the throat, and calmly snapped its neck. It fell to the ground with a heavy thump.

**"Leader,"** the Cyber Lieutenant reported, **"the Doctor and his companions are escaping to the surface."**

**"It does not matter,"** the Leader said.** "The Controller, is he activated yet?"  
**  
**"Yes,"** a different voice replied. A taller Cyberman, with a larger brain-case and less piping, slowly walked down a ramp from a different room, and surveyed the scene.** "You say the Doctor has been here?"**

**"Yes Controller,"** the Cyberleader replied. **"He caused all of this damage by interfering with our control systems."**

"You allowed him access to these systems?" the Controller queried.

**"He appeared to have succumbed to an emotional insanity, Controller,"** the Cyberleader argued dispassionately. **"He appeared merely to hit the control console – we did not suspect that he had instructed it to do anything."**

**"The Doctor is a devious enemy,"** the Controlled said. **"You must always be on your guard. I trust that you have learned from this miscalculation?"**

**"Yes Controller,"** the Cyberleader said.

**"Excellent,"** the Controller said.** "Now – as to this situation. Since the Doctor knows our plans, we must accelerate them. Activate the army."**

**"Yes Controller,"** the Lieutenant acknowledged.

**"Is this not too soon to act, Controller?"** the Cyberleader queried.

**"If we do not act now,"** the Controller replied, **"The Doctor will find a way to ruin all we have worked to achieve. We must accelerate our plans, or risk having them come to nothing. We must survive."**


	5. The Invasion Proceeds As Planned

v

The Doctor and co ran out onto the street, puffing and panting, checking behinmd them to make sure no Cybermen were pursuing.

"Right," the Doctor said, after a moment. "We've gotta warn the authorities about the Cybermen quickly."

"I'll put Torchwood on alert," Carson said, grabbing her communicator and muttering softly into it.

"Doctor, what can we do to stop them?" Jack asked, worriedly. "This is my home, and those emtal monstrousities are gonna destroy it..."

"We have to figure something out, and quick," the Doctor replied, looking around. "I need time!"

"Well, we haven't _got_ much time," Eilidh observed. "Look!"

To the horror of those assembled, they came, from every alleyway, and every sewer top. Cybermen emerged, swarming like flies, standing, and shooting. People screamed, and quickly, the white armoured police aimed laser pistols.

"Alright!" one of the cops yelled. "Hold it right there you... you... metal freaks!"

One of the many Cybermen turned on him. The man tightened his grip on his gun.

"I said hold it!" he yelled. "Before I shoot!"

The Cyberman said nothing, merely blasted him with a shot from his head gun, and he flew across the street, until he hit a wall and landed in a heap with a groan. More people were being blasted all around them.

Before they could do anything, a Cyberman advanced on the Doctor and his friends.

**"You will surrender,"** it said.

"Like Hell!" Jack yelled, aiming his pistol and firing. There was no effect.

"Where'd you hide that?!" Eilidh yelled.

"Don't ask!" Jack yelled, as the Cyberman advanced.

"Down!" Carson yelled. The Doctor dragged Jack and Eilidh down, as she fired a weapon she pulled from behind her back and blasted the Cyberman away in a blaze of blue energy, where it lay in smouldering pieces.

"Where did you hide that?" the Doctor asked.

Carson only smiled. "Don't ask," she said. The Doctor looked at Jack.

"You really are from around here, aren't you?" he commented. Eilidh rolled her eyes, and they walked off, dodging the Cybermen and trying not to be seen.

--

**"The invasion proceeds as planned,"** the Leader reported.

**"This is satisfactory,"** the Controller acknowledged. "**Has the Doctor been located?"**

**"Negative,"** the Leader reported. **"There as a report of an engagement, but the unit has been destroyed..."**

**"The location of the Doctor is a priority,"** the Controller stated, almost worried in its tone. **"He is the most dangerous individual on this planet - we must locate him."**

--

The Doctor motioned to Eilidh and the others, and they crouched behind some wreckage. All around them, the human defences were being smashed and the defenders slaughtered.

"Look, I need to go back and talk to the Controller," he said to the assembled party. "I might be able to convince him to abandon this plan, or at the very least stop it. Eilidh, I need you to come with me."

"What?!" Eilidh whispered harshly. "Why the hell do you need me?"

"Because I can't do it without you," the Doctor grinned. "Jack, I need you to help the Torchwood people to stop this invasion - or at the very least, buy me time, now can you manage that?"

"Yes," the Captain smiled grimly at him. "I think I can do that."

"Brilliant!" the Doctor grinned. "Now, Eilidh - come with me!"

He ran off down the street, and Eilidh, sighing, followed. Jack aimed his webley and started giving him covering fire.

"Right then," he said to Carson. "You gonna take me to your new Torchwood or not?"

--


	6. The Device

VI

The streets were in chaos. As the Cybermen emerged, people panicked and ran in all directions, like headless chickens. Soldiers gathered together to lead a fight back, but the Cybermens' armour was more than a match for the human weaponry.

That was the scene that Jack was witnessing from the top of the Torchwood X building.

"So, have you any ideas?" Carson asked him.

"Nope."

"Not even one?" she insisted.

"Nada, zilch, squat," he replied, looking gloomily. "We wait for the Doctor to come up with something."

"And you call yourself Captain Jack Harkness, the man who faced down Abaddon?" Carson said, incredulously. "You'll just happily stand here and wait for the Doctor to sort everything out for you? What kind of leader are you?!"

"The kind who knows when he can't do anything!" Jack retorted angrily, spinning on his heel and staring Carson down. "I fought Abaddon through sheer desperation - and it nearly killed me! Everything I've done has been small fry - I couldn't lead anyone against a real invasion!"

"You will!" Carson yelled back, before blanching and snapping her mouth shut.

"What?" he said, mischievously, grinning at her. "Did you just nearly break a law of time?"

"It doesn't matter!" she snapped again. "If you won't do anything - Torchwood will!"

She stormed off, fuming.

--

**_"Invasion forces request reinforcements at sector five seven. Unit 1865 requesting Cyber Leader download. Processing. Conversion unit alpha is malfunctioning, initiate repairs."_**

And so the monotone went on, the droning of Cybermen with their reports of what the hell was going on. Eilidh looked around - more people were in the conversion pods the Doctor had told her about. Cybermen were wandering around. The Doctor was just marching in, all blasé about it. Well, she didn't care what he said, this was creepy.

Of course, it helped that they were both wearing perception filters, but it was still creepy. Giant metal men walking around, fit to turn everyone into more metal men...

The Doctor wasn't even looking at anyone or anything - he was just heading for - what had he called it? The central command module.

As they walked, Eilidh kept having flashbacks to the first Cyber Invasion. Metal men walking around Cardiff. The military fighting them. She could even remember having seen Jack, giving instructions to a bunch of soldiers, though at the time, she could have sworn he was just some RAF guy. _'Shows how much I knew'_, she thought to herself.

She walked on, the Doctor ahead of her. _'What is he going to do?'_ she wondered. _'How the heck do we stop a giant army of invulnerable metal men?_

--

Jack followed Carson, not because he wanted to help her do the 'something' she was threatening, but because he knew Torchwood of old, and they were always gonna do something they shouldn't - and the Doctor would be really very annoyed at him if they did.

"What are you gonna do?" he asked Carson as they strode.

"What I have to," she snapped back at him. "What I think is right."

"Which would be?" he asked.

"Something," she said. They strode on. Various Torchwood troopers were running around, grabbing alien weapons, and so on. Jack recognised the look on their faces as one he'd seen on his teams many times - 'the worlds in danger - we're Torchwood, and we're gonna do something even if we die doing it.' That look had signified Torchwood Ones attitude - which is why barely thirty or forty of over one thousand and ninety five employees survived. Because they meant to do something. Of course, once they were converted into Cybermen, many of them had done something - but Jack had heard from the Doctor and seen on the CCTV tapes what the Torchwood people had done once the Daleks attacked - they had stood firm, fought, and died like heroes. It almost made him proud to be a part of Torchwood.

Almost. He still remembered the murders he'd seen.

The building suddenly shook, as an explosion from the lower levels ripped through them.

"Miss Carson!!" a soldier yelled, running up and saluting her, "the Cybermen have broken into the building!"

"Hold them off as long as you can," Carson replied grimly. "I'm heading for the device. That'll stop them."

The soldiers eyes widened, then he saluted again, and ran off, shouting instructions to his men.

"What exactly is this device?" Jack asked sharply.

Carson stopped, and turned to face him.

"Promise me you won't try to stop me," she said. Jack looked her right in the eye. He didn't think he could trust her. In fact, being honest, he _knew_ he couldn't trust her.

"I promise," he said simply.

"I intend to use a device given to the institute fifty years ago, to combat the threat of Cybermen," she told him grimly. "A device designed to fry their systems. It's called - the Quintrix Virus."


	7. You Will Give Us What We Want Now

VII

The Controller had downloaded all files on the Doctor as soon as it knew he was involved. It knew he was responsible for all the Cybermens failures. The defeat of the early invasions of Earth. The annihilation of Mondas. It knew that the Doctor would never allow the Cybermen to succeed. So it was no great leap of logic to assume the Doctor would come here, to try and stop it. So when the Doctor suddenly appeared, standing right near the entrance to the chamber, it didn't react at all.

"Cybercontroller," the Doctor commented. "I wonder if you can actually die."

**"The Cybercontroller units themselves are capable of destruction,"** the Controller replied.** "But the program automatically saves and resets with every Controller."**

"The question was rhetorical," the Doctor snapped. "Anyway, that's not what interests me... what interests me is, why attack this little, pointless colony world? Boeshane isn't a planet with any strategic significance, or resources, there aren't many people..."

**"This is not the only world under attack, Doctor,"** the Cybercontroller countered. **"This is only one of countless thousands under assault."**

The Doctor blanched, then closed his eyes, trying desperately to remember something. Then, as if somebody had flicked a switch inside his head, his eyes opened and he grinned.

"This is the Cyber war!" he yelled. "Right now, a massive Cyber fleet is attacking Ganymede station. Right now, thousands of colony worlds are being converted. Right now, you're launching the biggest single campaign in the history of the Cyber Race!"

**"This is correct,"** the Controller said, **"however, your reaction is illogical - you are acting as if this course of events is a welcome one. You are an enemy of the Cyber Race, our triumph is not one of your long-term goals."**

"Well," the Doctor grinned. "If you have foreknowledge of events like me, then you're bound to be happy if you know about the Cyber Mash Up!"

The Cybercontroller marched up to him and lifted him by his collar.

**"Explain this,"** it demanded, almost angry.

"You get stuffed!" the Doctor laughed. "Beaten! Stopped! Defeated! Soundly trounced!"

The Controller said nothing for a full thirty seconds, holding the Doctor there, but he could tell it was processing information as it stood, because there was a faint whirring from it's head. He grinned at it again, and the whirring stopped.

The Controller threw him across the room, sending him smashing heavily into a wall. He struggled to stand, but it was already upon him again.

**"You are the Doctor,"** it told him. It threw him across to the other side of the room. **"You are an enemy of the Cyber Race."** It rammed him into a wall. **"You are the cause of our near extinction in the past." **It smacked him in the face. **"You are the only thing standing between us and the salvation of humanity."**

It picked him up, and rammed him into a Conversion Pod that had only recently been vacated.

**"You will become our greatest weapon,"** the Controller told him.** "You will inform us of the necessary alterations to our plan, and then assist us in implementing them."**

"NO!" came a small yell from behind them. Eilidh had taken her perception filter off, and ran to the Controller, hitting it with a pole she had picked up from the corridors outside. The controller knocked it out of her hand and grabbed her arm.

"**You will become like us,"** it said simply. **"Once a conversion unit is vacated, you will join the Cyber Race."**

"No!" she yelled again. "I'd rather die!"

"You are in pain," it told her. "It is understandable. You have lost much. You have suffered greatly. But we will set you free. You will be free of hatred, of joy, of depression, of fear. You will become as we are."

She stopped struggling as it spoke, and looked up at the dead eyes, at the teardrops in the corner.

She stared into those eyes.

"Who were you?" she wondered aloud.

**"I am the Cybercontroller,"** it said simply. It held fast, and turned to the Doctor, semi conscious as he was. He opened his eyes slightly, and looked at Eilidh, then rammed his hands against the glass case.

"NO!" he yelled. "Leave her alone! I'll give you anything you want if you just leave her alone!"

**"Incorrect,"** the Controller said.** "You will give us what we want now."**

--

It was a simple remote control, attached to a large, oddly shaped computer - ivory coloured, almost as if it was made out of bone...

"It was given to the Boeshane Peninsula hundreds of years ago, in case of this eventuality. We were told, 'this is your salvation'," Carson explained.

"What is it, what does it do?" Jack asked.

"It's the most powerful anti Cyberman weapon ever devised," Carson smiled. "It targets their unique Cybernetic Elements, fries their circuitry. Kills them, for a radius of a whole world. Doesn't affect anything else."

Jack looked it up and down. It looked pretty nasty.

"Have you tested it?" he asked.

"One use only, apparently," Carson replied. "Now, are you gonna help?"

Jack thought of the Doctor. This would be tantamount to genocide, wouldn't it? Then again, it was only one group of Cybermen, there were surely others - and the Doctor had been willing to kill an entire race of Daleks, an entire planet of humans. But that was then, the old Doctor, the Ninth Doctor (at least according to the records). That Doctor was scarred. This Doctor was different. He wouldn't stand for it.

"No," Jack said.

Carson looked at him in disappointment for a moment, then turned to the console.

"Then keep out of my way."


	8. We will survive

VIII

Pain like nothing he'd ever felt before... the pain of a thousand million people all thrown in to create  
one excruciating mess. That was what he was feeling. They hadn't even started on his body yet - this was all in the mind, trying to condition him. That was how it worked - break the mind, so it wouldn't reject the changes in the body. But he wouldn't let them get his mind, no, no, no...

He could still vaguely see Eilidh screaming, as she watched the Cyber tech mind conditioning-thingy (he'd never found out the technical term) attach itself to his head. It hurt like hell...

Was this it, he wondered to himself? Was this his demise? Was this how the Doctor would finally die?

No - no it couldn't be. He was the Doctor - the Ka Faraq Gatri! This wasn't his fate.

Was it?

--

Carson pressed the last code in. Every head of Torchwood X knew this sequence, it was the first thing they told you. She entered the last code. Now it was a matter of standing back, and waiting...

Ah yes, the bleep. Now, for the important bit. Grab the lever, and hold it down...

--

Torchwoods troops were being slaughtered; there was no question of it. They were being absolutely hammered by the Cybermen. Their weapons, while being a variety of laser weapons both home built and scavenged from various alien threats, were simply no match for the Cybermens head guns and advanced armour. They had caused some damage but they were being wiped out in the process.

"Die like men!" yelled one of the few surviving militia officers. He raised his pistol and shot a Cybermans head clean off. As it collapsed, dozens of Cybermen aimed their weapons at him. He stared into the blank eyes and closed his own, waiting for death.

It never came. They didn't fire. He opened his eyes.

The Cybermen were grabbing their heads, yelling in pain, even vomiting white, viscous fluid.

"What's happening to them?" one of the soldiers asked.

--

The Doctor screamed some more, as the mental defences he had so desperately set up finally began to break down…

And then a completely different pain rang through his head, causing him to scream – it wasn't a pain he felt personally, more an emphatic pain he shared with…

The Cybermen. All of them were screaming, all of them were dying, all of them were collapsing, vomiting, the Controller letting Eilidh go in the confusion. The Doctor furiously tried to break out of the conversion chamber, and finally succeeded.

"What's happening to them?" Eilidh asked, watching the destruction with some trepidation.

"I don't know," the Doctor replied, "but whatever it is, I'll just bet Torchwood has something to do with it. C'mon!"

He grabbed her hand, and they ran out of the rapidly collapsing Cybermen base. Behind them, the Controller was leaning against the console, muttering in its metallic voice.

"No, this cannot be," it said. "We must survive. We will survive. We will survive. We will survive. We will survive. We will survive. We will survive. We will survive. We will survive. We will survive. We will survive. We will survive. We will survive. We will survive. We will survive. We will survive. We will survive..."

And with that lonely mantra ringing in its metal ears, it died as the Cyber base collapsed.


	9. Where Home Is

IX

Jack walked amongst the Torchwood men, talking to them. They had been so willing to let themselves die, if only they could stop the Cybermen. So willing to sacrifice themselves to the greater good. Brave men, all of them. Torchwoods finest.

'Well,' he thought proudly, 'maybe not the very finest.'

His friends were the best, he thought. Ianto Jones. Gwen Cooper. Owen Harper. Toshiko Sato. All of them. Brilliant.

That had been his home. But this was his home too. Where, he wondered, was his true home?

Should he stay?

Could he stay?

He looked up, to see the Doctor and Eilidh walking towards him, both of them looking very, very tired.

"You look like I feel," he called to them. The Doctor looked at him, and then Jack understood what he wanted.

"Where's Carson?" the Time Lord asked.

--

The console was a mess. Nothing had survived but molten metal and wires. Carson had stayed, pressing buttons until the end, and she looked little better. The Doctor had said nothing, but turned on his heel and walked out.

"You didn't stop her," he said to Jack.

"A hundred years of working for Torchwood, I guess," Jack replied, unsmiling. "Does some things to a man. Like gives him loyalty to the cause."

The Doctor said nothing. Boeshane was only one of millions of worlds threatened by the Cybermen.

"So what happens now?" Eilidh asked.

"Humanity takes massive casualties," the Doctor told her. "But they survive, and win. Eventually, they use planet Voga to create the glitter gun, and wipe out the Cybermen, apart from small splinter groups. This war will be the end of the Cybermen, except as Gold plated statues people use as Hatstands."

He smiled softly, then turned to Jack.

"Shall we go?" he asked.

"I can't," Jack said, the decision he had come to ringing through him. "This is my home. I owe these people more than you can possibly realise."

The Doctor nodded, and walked back to the TARDIS, looking downtrodden. Eilidh stayed for a moment.

"Well," she said at last. "This is goodbye then."

"Yeah," Jack smiled. "Best news you've had all day, huh?"

Eilidh smiled as well, then hugged him.

"I'll miss you, you sexist rake," she told him, her voice breaking slightly. He smiled again.

"I'll miss you too, you annoying brat."

She smiled, wiped a tear from her eye, and walked off, towards the TARDIS The Doctor watched as the door closed.

_Gwen. Ianto. Friends. Cardiff. Earth in the Twenty First Century._

He watched as the lamp started flashing.

_Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. Travel. Fun. The Old Doctor, in that Leather Jacket of his. The New Doctor, in his suits, and his coat, and his shirts, and his ties. Rose Tyler. Martha Jones. Eilidh Brown._

He watched as the box started fading.

_The Doctor. Alone. Without him._

And for the third time in his incredibly long life, he jumped onto the TARDIS as it was taking off. He smiled, as he thought of the Doctor. He smiled, as he knew the Doctors words would be something along the lines of:

"Oh not again!!"

He knew where his home was.

**Fin.**


End file.
